News

Until recently we believed that a 1798 colour-washed drawing by JMW Turner showed the mill, a copy of another artist’s work. Since the 1798 drawing was auctioned at Christies in 2006 under the title ‘Boot Mill in Eskdale on Whillan Beck, Lake District’, it has appeared, amongst other places, in the successful bid to UNESCO…

Restoration is due for completion March 2019. Interpretation will be installed afterwards. A Mill Manager will be recruited towards the end of 2018, with this post advertised January 2019 and a successful applicant moving into the refurbished cottage in April. The re-opening of the mill to visitors is planned for June 2019.

Minerva Heritage has presented detailed design proposals to Trustees, advisers and volunteers and continues to develop these. Learning materials will be created in partnership with local schools. As access to the site is restricted this can’t happen until 2019. Self-guided trails and virtual tours are also being developed. A Cumbria-based company, Rocket Sites, redesigned and…

Lambert Walker Ltd of Ulverston, our builders, took possession of the site at the end of July. Both halves of the site are fenced in to maintain the public footpath to the fell gate. Scaffolding encloses the main mill building, stable/hay loft and the cottage. Work began by chipping out cement pointing outside the cottage…

Our millwrights Derek and Simon Janes, of Janes Ltd, of Wimborne in Dorset, have been on site since late August. They began by clearing the machinery areas and assessing repairs and replacement needs, and are carrying out some restoration work in their own workshop. The millwrights are working first on re-assembly of the lower wheel…

Starting work on site is a huge milestone. We hope you are as excited about the future of the mill as we are. The support from members has been invaluable and we are extremely grateful. As members you can help in many ways: promoting the work of the Trust to friends, relatives or colleagues and…

Five Civil Asset Management Apprentice Degree (CAMAD) students visited Eskdale Mill on 27 September. They have an interest in conservation building techniques and their employer – Sellafield nuclear site – is committed to engaging with and supporting the local community. They were shown around and learnt about the built environment, specific conservation works, and how…

Rosemary Lord joined us as an adviser in April this year, and has since been appointed as a trustee. Rose has qualifications in conservation and heritage management, and experience of project management, and has recently taken up a new post with the Lake District National Park Authority. Rose has kindly agreed to co-ordinate the Trust’s…

As part of this year’s Heritage Open Days programme, the mill opened on 6 September for visitors to view ongoing works to restore the mill buildings and machinery. Both tours were free but places were limited and had to be booked in advance. The architects, builders and millwrights were on hand to explain our plans…

We were running in February, and used the March-April dry spell to resolve the ‘drumming’. Altering the generating machinery had created this low frequency beating sound. By adding a triangle of metal sheet at the end of the launder, the same quantity of water drops but is now spread more thinly. The ‘drum beat’ is…